Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c9.3

c9.3

Generally the Indian armies were large in size; and every foreign traveller who visited India was struck by their numbers. According to the accounts presented by Pliny and Plutarch, the army of Candragupta Maurya consisted of 9,000 elephants, 39,000 horses and 60,000 foot soldiers besides chariots.¹ In the Vijayanagar empire too the army was large in size. Ferishta says that Bukka I assembled an army consisting of 30,000 horses, 3,000 elephants and 100,000 foot when he advanced towards Ādōni in A.D. 1366.² Nicolo dei Conti who visited Vijayanagar in 1421 estimated the strength of the Hindu army at 90,000 men fit to bear arms.³ Abdur Razāk, who visited the city twenty-one years later, records that the Vijayanagar army consisted of eleven lacs of men, (1,100,000) and more than 1,000 elephants, “lofty as the hills and gigantic as demons.”⁴ Athanasius Nikitin, the Russian traveller who stayed at Kulburga between 1468 and 1474, describes the Vijayanagar army as consisting of 300 elephants, 100,000 infantry and 50,000 horse, while that of Sultan Muhammad of Kulburga consisted of 575 elephants, 900,000 foot and 190,000 horse.⁵ According to the accounts of Varthema there were 40,000 horsemen in Vijayanagar.⁶ Duarte Barbosa in giving an account of Vijayanagar says that the king kept at all times 900 elephants and more than 20,000 horses, and had more than 100,000 men both horse and foot to whom he gave pay.7 The chronicle of Paes also contains some interesting information about the Vijayanagar army. Referring to Kṛṣṇadēva Rāya and his forces, Paes says: "This king has continually a million fighting troops in which are included 35,000 cavalry in armour; all these are in his pay and he has these troops always together and ready to be despatched to any quarter whenever such may be necessary."8 He says that the king once sent fifty captains with 150,000 soldiers amongst whom were many cavalry, and adds: "He (the king) has many elephants, and when the king wishes to show the strength of his power to any of his adversaries amongst the three kings bordering on his kingdom, they say that he puts into the field two million soldiers; in consequence of which he is the most feared king of any in these parts."9 Nuniz estimates that the army which Kṛṣṇadēva Rāya led to the battle of Raicūr in 1519 consisted of 703,000 foot, 32,600 horse and 551 elephants, besides the camp followers, merchants, and others, and "an infinitude of people" who joined him at a place close to Raicūr.¹⁰ The Rāyavācakamu states that Kṛṣṇadēva Rāya was followed in his campaigns against the Muhammadans by 120 ghaṭṭams¹¹ of elephants, 60,000 horse and 500,000 infantry in a body.¹² According to the Kṛṣṇarāyavijayamu, the strength of Kṛṣṇa Rāya's army was 600,000 foot, 6,600 horse, and 2,000 elephants.¹³ The army of Rāma Rāja was also large. According to Ferishta it consisted of 70,000 horse and 90,000 infantry¹⁴ but if the anonymous chronicler is to be believed, it was even larger and was made up of 100,000 horse and 300,000 infantry.¹⁵ Couto and Faria y Sousa agree with the above accounts as to the number of horses, but estimate that the foot soldiers alone were more than six hundred thousand.¹⁶